1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to credit systems and business entity, consumer, merchant, provider and credit issuer relationships and, in particular, to a method and system for engaging in a transaction between a business entity and a merchant, such as between a corporation, a proprietorship, a partnership, a company, a non-profit entity, a governmental entity, a municipal entity, a public entity and the like, and a merchant and based upon a relationship established with a provider, a credit issuer, a financial institution, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to enable convenient purchases of goods and services by consumers, the financial service industry has developed many alternative payment methods that allow a consumer to engage in a transaction and receive goods and services on credit. For example, such alternative payment methods may include checks, ATM or debit cards, credit cards and/or charge cards, etc. Prior to the birth of virtual commerce, as discussed below, such payment options provided adequate convenience and transactional security to consumers and merchants in the marketplace. Virtual commerce and the growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce have placed pressure on the payment options discussed above on the convenience, transactional security and profitability by the credit issuer. Currently, available payment options include significant shortcomings when applied to remote purchasers, such as purchases where the buyer and the seller (that is, the merchant) are not physically proximate during the transaction. Specific examples of remote purchases are mail order, telephone order, the Internet and wireless purchases.
In a typical credit transaction and process, a consumer engages with a merchant at the point-of-sale, such as online at the merchant's website, at the merchant's business or store and/or over the telephone with the merchant's call/sales center, etc. The merchant sends a request to the credit issuer to obtain authorization or verification data allowing the consumer to consummate the sale. For example, the credit issuer may indicate to the merchant whether the consumer is creditworthy, is over his or her limit, is verified and/or has the available funds/balance to make the purchase, etc.
According to the prior art, and in the first instance, when a consumer wishes to obtain a credit product, such as a credit card or credit account, from a credit issuer, such as a bank, the consumer fills out an application, whether in hard copy or electronic form, and submits this application to the credit issuer. Once the appropriate information is received from the consumer, the credit issuer will make a decision regarding whether the applicant is eligible for credit product. If the person is, indeed, eligible, and meets the necessary requirements, the credit issuer establishes an account and provides the consumer with either the appropriate account information, or in most cases, a physical credit card for use in engaging in transactions. In addition, in order to successfully consummate the transaction, the consumer must have some preexisting relationship with some credit provider in order to facilitate any non-cash transaction, e.g., an online transaction and/or a telephone transaction, etc. Therefore, in order to engage in some non-cash purchases, the consumer must obtain credit, initiate the transaction with the merchant, and utilize the obtained credit product to consummate the transaction and receive the goods and/or services.
According to the prior art, systems have been developed to assist in facilitating a transaction between a consumer and a merchant, such as in an electronic or online environment. However, in many instances, such systems are directed primarily to consumer-to-merchant transactions, and do not provide the required functionality to allow for successful business-to-merchant or business-to-provider transactions. Many commercial transactions require additional underlying documentation and information exchange prior to (e.g., in an application process), during and after the transaction. For example, in a lease transaction, the leased property must be recorded, certain forms executed and/or identification of certain delivery data to begin the life of the lease, etc. Accordingly, such commercial transactions have normally required an extensive paper exchange between the parties in order to effectuate the transaction.
In addition, in another aspect of commercial transactions between some provider and a business entity, additional information is often required during the application process. For example, in some situations, in order to set up and/or process a credit account, line-of-credit, lease arrangement or similar credit-based relationship, the provider requires some guarantor or co-applicant data from the business entity. Prior art systems either have no basis or function in order to obtain such information, when necessary, and in some cases rely on a paper-based communication system in order to obtain this data. Therefore, there is a need for a system that facilitates the requisite data requests between the parties in order to effect the commercial transaction.